AMBITION REALISED

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20821, 3 June 1939, Page 12

AMBITION REALISED

YOUTHFUL STOWAWAY VISITS WORLD’S FAIR, NEW YORK EXPEDITION COSTS HALF-CROWN (Times Air Mail Service.) LONDON, May 11 Eighteen-year-old Roy Twaites wanted to see the World s Fair in New York. But he was as far away from It as Chatham, he was unemployed and he had only half a crown. So he hitch-hiked to Southampton, got a visitor’s pass to the liner Manhattan, picked up a dining-saloon reservation, and with this emblem of a bonafide passenger fed in luxury for lour days. With ten cents (sd) given him by a woman passenger, he earned four dollars (16s 8d) the first day on gaming machines, and spent most of it on drinks for the crew. But he had nowhere to sleep, and had to spend uncomfortable nights in a locker. Dumped Ashore It was there that he was discovered. He was taken before the captain, and when the ship arrived was dumped on Ellis Island. For six days they kept him there. Then came Roy’s greatest stroke of luck. A charitable organisation arranged for 30 young people on the island to visit the Fair under supervision. The party included Roy. He spent an afternoon and evening at the Fair. Next day he was homeward bound in the Manhattan, and to-day he landed at Plymouth. He had worked his pasage back by holystoning the decks. With Roy was another stowaway, 23-year-old" Michael Kelly. He, too, had pretended to be a passenger, but he had no meal ticket. Yet he was not unmasked until the ship was actually in New York Harbour, He did not see the World’s Fair. •* Some people get all the luck,” he said.